


Hometowns (and moving on)

by Leonawriter



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Childhood Memories, Flash Fic, Gen, Sort of? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 14:26:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13320063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: Everything changes from the point when Cloud - just a trooper - remembers seeing a white-haired boy ask why he was trespassing on Shinra property when he was young enough to slip in through the bars of the gate. Sephiroth would not have deemed it important enough to follow through if he hadn't been desperate for answers, but he was, so he does, with Cloud in tow.





	Hometowns (and moving on)

When they reach Nibelheim and Sephiroth recalls having no hometown to them, Cloud remembers an old, buried memory of having ‘accidentally’ lost himself all the way to the inside of the Shinra Mansion once, when he was small enough to fit through the bars of the gate. Remembers seeing an older kid with white hair who asked him  _What are you doing on Shinra property? Don’t you know this is off-limits?_ and had walked him back to the doors.

Sephiroth, curious but not sure what to make of this, lets himself be taken over to visit Cloud’s mother, who they’re told would remember more, encouraged by Zack - who wants his friends to have something good in common, especially if it’d make Sephiroth feel better - and there they find that Mrs. Strife had never really believed Cloud about her son meeting some strange child in places he wasn’t supposed to have been, not until she’d seen the Shinra trucks taking the scientists away, and in one window, a head of silver hair on what had to have been a child, which matched too well with what Cloud had said.

She mentions that she hadn’t said anything, because it had been better to let Cloud just continue thinking that his new friend had passed him by, or moved out of town when Cloud was older, and more capable of moving on and forgetting. He hadn’t had that many friends back then, after all.

She says that it’s not even because of this that she’d always suspected that there was some connection between the mystery boy and the General; it could have been anyone, even if she _had_  been paying attention. 

But the small Cloud, not much older than four, hadn’t been able to say the boy’s name, and the idea of anyone having a name like _Sephy_  had stuck in her mind. Enough that a man with silver hair and a name like _Sephiroth_  had caught her attention somewhat, and she hadn’t been too surprised.

Sephiroth… _is._  He remembered the labs, some - and he even remembers the drive away from some place that he had felt no fondness for. But he can’t recall the encounter so well, and that makes him, well, curious.

Mrs. Strife warns him that if he wants to discover why he’d been there, he should be _careful_ , that whatever he found out probably wouldn’t be good. She waves off their concerns of her attitude toward Shinra, stating how the town hasn’t had good sentiments toward the company for some years now, and none of it’s been without cause. The monsters had been something people could deal with, before, and now they were stronger, less things grew… and none of them had liked the attitude of the scientists.

But it is Sephiroth’s _past_ , and he feels that if he finds out the truth behind his origins, then everything else - from Genesis and Angeal to any number of _other_  mysteries in his life - would unravel bit by bit, showing him the answers one by one.

It’s for this reason that he commandeers the trooper’s attention and time away from his home and friends, and asks to be shown exactly where this encounter would have taken place. 

Cloud’s retracing of his steps isn’t perfect; he was _young_  when this happened, and his recollection is foggy, and he confuses Sephiroth when he kneels down once they get inside the gate not just once, but several times - until he reminds the older man, very awkwardly at that, that they’ve grown since they met all those years ago. Perspective is important.

Sephiroth copies him, now, and something clicks at the location, the height, and the sight of Cloud’s blond hair, enough to confirm that this was no mere tall tale created by a trooper with an overactive imagination and a desire to have the General hold him in higher esteem.

One moment of familiarity is enough to bring back more, and before they know it they’re exploring the rest of the mansion.

It isn’t long until they discover the _other_  side of the building, or rather, the _under_ side. Sephiroth stiffens at the sight of far too familiar labs that he recalls being grateful at being taken away from, but none of the scientists are there. Just… data. Computers, old memory drives, books, and piles of notes.

He sits down cross-legged, and opens one that has Gast’s name on it, idly wishing - childishly, perhaps, but then he’d come down here on the whim of a memory from the childhood he apparently shared with this _trooper_ , of all people - and started to read.

When Cloud seems not to know what to do with himself, Sephiroth irritatedly motions for him to start on something as well, clearance levels be damned.

There was so much in this room that it would take at least a full week to clear through on his own. Cloud already knew more about his past, and had been more willing to share, than anyone else Sephiroth had known so far.

Words such as _Jenova, Ancient, cells_ and _the original race before humanity_  passed before his eyes. 

After some time, he noted that Cloud had disappeared, but he discarded the information to one side in his preoccupation, only to be forced to acknowledge the fact when Cloud himself informed him that he’d _found something_.

Moreover, that it was on the same or similar subject matter, dated later than the materials they’d found in the library thus far, and - according to Cloud, at least - contradicted much of what they’d read before.

The need to _know_  overtook the anger and sense of betrayal that had been close to overflowing, just as it had done every time in the past, and words such as _alien, virus, monster,_ and _reunion theory_  stared back at him from the few pages Cloud had found, stuck between the pages of a book that had been hidden away.

The words _Gast’s mistaken theory_  glared back at him, mocking, and as much as Sephiroth felt furious he also felt _nauseous._

It’s actually around then, as he’s talking with Cloud as to what the truth could be, when Zack comes down to meet them, telling them that they’ve been down there all night and it’s now mid-morning, and none of them had ended up sleeping in the inn after all. But that wasn’t all, because he’d found black feathers somewhere close by, near the trail toward Mt. Nibel, which could only mean one thing - _Genesis’_ presence.

It’s as they’re leaving that Zack mentions how it seems very _convenient_  how, if what Cloud had found was the most recently dated set of notes, all that had been left was the wrong information. He mentions that possibly it’s because they left in a hurry, but the probability is left in the air that it had been left like this on _purpose._

He remembered the black and white words saying _outline of original set of experiment parameters_ and _failed specimens_  as he stalked up the stairs to what could end up being a confrontation.

Was that all they were, in the end? Experiments and specimens, to be discarded and allowed to wither to their own demise once their use was up?

Monsters, then, to be let loose and terminated the moment they were deemed unnecessary, or too powerful. Perhaps, in this case, Genesis had been _right._

He’s quiet on the way up, more than usual as he goes over his thoughts and his recollections of what he had read and what he had talked over with Cloud, and the importance of remembering having met Cloud Strife at all, in this place, in his childhood. Perhaps he would have said more, had their guide and the other trooper not been with them, but they were - and despite letting _Cloud_  in on Shinra’s most closely guarded secrets - _(you, it’s you, it’s always been you)_  - he is loathe to simply allow _anyone_  into his confidence in such a way.

He faces the truths of the reactor with Zack, and even the steely determination and forewarning that the notes had given him were not quite enough to leave him untouched by the sight of humanoid monsters made of mako in their tanks, or the sight of what he had always thought of as his _mother’s name_  written on the wall at the far end of the reactor’s main room, above a door.

Part of him was drawn to that, the pull almost inexorable, but Zack - serious in an way that was almost out of character for the outgoing and hyperactive First - had reminded him that if what they’d seen was correct, then he wasn’t all that different from Angeal, who the boy had looked so much alike as he said it, or Genesis, and neither of _them_  had been made fully with this Jenova’s cells.

In fact, it had been _Cloud_  who had read aloud and asked what, exactly, _Jenova cells injected into the specimen’s mother before birth_  had meant, bringing up the question that haunted him even now-

If what he had been told of Jenova being his mother was a lie as much as everything _else_  about his past was, then who _was_ the woman?

Genesis strikes out at Zack while Sephiroth is distracted, and he berates himself for letting himself show enough weakness that this was allowed to occur. Genesis, who tries to ask for access to Sephiroth’s S-cells, in order to be _cured_.

Sephiroth can’t help but laugh, and it’s a testament to how much has been pushed aside in his mind, the bitterness and grief and betrayals of many, many _years upon years_ , that the two of them look at him oddly when he’s done and calm again. When he tells Genesis that he could _have_  his cells - as long as he wanted to die a painful death.

The response he received was an ugly scowl and the other swordsman’s hand going to his blade, which he took to mean that Genesis had not understood him, thought that it was a _refusal_ , and he simply shook his head.

 _You know nothing about me,_  he simply said, suddenly cold, _but trust me when I say that monsters cannot cure each other of what makes them monsters._

Genesis’ reaction had been all that he had hoped for - anger, impotent rage, despair - but instead of feeling satisfied with what his own words had wrought, he merely felt… empty. Sat there under the name of a false mother and false goddess of ancient times, with no love or desire to go back to the company he had been brought up in - _created for_ , the traitorous side of his mind told him - he… did not know where to go.

But he could hear Zack outside, asking if the trooper - Cloud, it could only be Cloud - was alright, as well as their guide, since Genesis must have passed them on the way out, and that was what it took for Sephiroth to stand, push his conflicted feelings aside for just a moment, and follow, to lead them down the trail in case Genesis decided to attack them in spite.

He tells them both, Zack and Cloud, once they’re back at the inn. Tells them that Shinra’s greatest weapon is _not coming back to Shinra._

What he doesn’t say is that he fears that if he does, that he would lose the tight control he has on his temper, and he would burn all of the Shinra Building, no, all of _Midgar_ , to the ground, starting with the President, then Hojo, and then everyone else.

He doesn’t say, because what worries him is that he might not stop there, and he might not stop at the ones whose fault it is. He does not want them to know.

He worries what Zack will do with this information. Zack, who had killed Angeal and been lead to believe that he had also killed Genesis for a long time, who had followed orders for so long that even Sephiroth had balked at. 

Zack, however, just nods his head while Cloud stares at the two of them, Shinra’s best SOLDIERs, planning to turn on the company. But Cloud doesn’t say anything about running back to Midgar either, and if anything he suggests that he’s going to be going _with_  them, rather than staying here with his family, even.

He finds a black feather when he goes outside the next morning, bright and sunny in the late September air as though the three of them hadn’t been discussing desertion in the dark of night, and narrows his eyes at it.

The next time Genesis reappears is three days later, and it would almost seem like an accident if it weren’t for the fact that the man who had used to be his friend was just standing there, black wing out, leaning against the wall of one of the Nibelheim buildings. Sephiroth hadn’t gone back to the mansion since their fateful foray into the library, but he found himself watching the rest of the town with more interest than he gave most places, now. The people of his… hometown… however, were frustratingly _normal_. Almost boring. 

 _My friend, the fates are cruel,_ Genesis started to say, clearly only once Sephiroth was in both sight and earshot, _there are no dreams, no honour remains. The arrow has left the bow of the goddess._   _You’re leaving Shinra._  With a calculating eye, and ready to get out of range the moment it might seem as though Sephiroth were about to attack, of course. 

He didn’t deny it, however. Instead, noted that Genesis had moved onto Act Four.

Genesis ended up being the one to warn them to get out of Nibelheim, because Hojo was on his way - information that was backed up when Zack opened up his emails to find a worried message from a Second friend of his, saying that he hoped that they weren’t what Hojo was interested up there.

Kunsel sends Zack another email about a week later saying that they’ve been listed a top concern, status AWOL for having not reported in.

It’s Zack’s suggestion to go south rather than north and further back toward Midgar. To stop over in Cosmo Canyon, one of the last places Shinra would think to look for a Sephiroth who had gone _rogue_ , and maybe somewhere they could get something less conspicuous to wear, too. 

They don’t see any sign or feather of Genesis for several weeks, during which they begin to adjust to their new status, and Zack’s old friends in SOLDIER seem to be getting more and more worried, the atmosphere back there apparently exceedingly tense given that it wasn’t just _Zack_  who had left, but Sephiroth as well, but although Zack worried over them, Sephiroth couldn’t find himself able to. There had been nothing back there for him for some time now, and it had taken this much to make him realise that there was also nothing that could have made him _stay._

The next time Genesis _did_ reappear, he looked more… worn, than Sephiroth remembered. Although perhaps that was not merely physical, somehow - the other former First certainly seemed to be able to catch up with them wherever they were.

 _We can’t really call you a traitor or monster by this point,_  Sephiroth pointed out when Genesis called attention to the absolute _lack._   _It would simply be hypocritical at this point._

**Author's Note:**

> I'm always a sucker for 'what if someone else was with Sephiroth in the library so that he could have them fact check whether they like it or not, and the other day I wrote this onto Tumblr while I was sleep deprived. I think it was mostly inspired by the idea of 'what if Cloud and Sephiroth had met when they were kids' that I've seen around.
> 
> I have fun thinking of the Sephiroth of this fic being kind of like... he still has this seething rage that makes him want to destroy places - like Nibelheim and Midgar - but in Nibelheim's case, it's also Cloud's home, and Cloud is pretty much his anchor, a living proof of his origins, and Aerith is in Midgar and Zack would be as mad at him as he was at Genesis if he let Aerith get hurt, and Aerith'd be mad if he suggested that he'd thought of hurting her flowers.
> 
> Meanwhile... Genesis is still perfectly happy to indulge in a bit of violence so long as it's at Shinra's expense. Even and especially after they end up back at Banora and he's restored.


End file.
